Wyandot Government: A Short Study of Tribal Society | Page 4

year, and the chief of the gens proclaims these names at the festival. No person may change his name, but every person, man or woman, by honorable or dishonorable conduct, or by remarkable circumstance, may win a second name commemorative of deed or circumstance, which is a kind of title.
_REGULATIONS OF PERSONAL ADORNMENT._
Each clan has a distinctive method of painting the face, a distinctive chaplet to be worn by the gentile chief and council women when they are inaugurated, and subsequently at festival occasions, and distinctive ornaments for all its members, to be used at festivals and religious ceremonies.
_REGULATIONS OF ORDER IN ENCAMPMENT AND MIGRATIONS._
The camp of the tribe is in an open circle or horse-shoe, and the gentes camp in following order, beginning on the left and going around to the right:
Deer, Bear, Highland Turtle (striped), Highland Turtle (black), Mud Turtle, Smooth Large Turtle, Hawk, Beaver, Wolf, Sea Snake, Porcupine.
The order in which the households camp in the gentile group is regulated by the gentile councilors and adjusted from time to time in such a manner that the oldest family is placed on the left, and the youngest on the right. In migrations and expeditions the order of travel follows the analogy of encampment.
_PROPERTY RIGHTS._
Within the area claimed by the tribe each gens occupies a smaller tract for the purpose of cultivation. The right of the gens to cultivate a particular tract is a matter settled in the council of the tribe, and the gens may abandon one tract for another only with the consent of the tribe. The women councillors partition the gentile land among the householders, and the household tracts are distinctly marked by them. The ground is re-partitioned once in two years. The heads of households are responsible for the cultivation of the tract, and should this duty be neglected the council of the gens calls the responsible parties to account.
Cultivation is communal; that is, all of the able-bodied women of the gens take part in the cultivation of each household tract in the following manner:
The head of the household sends her brother or son into the forest or to the stream to bring in game or fish for a feast; then the able-bodied women of the gens are invited to assist in the cultivation of the land, and when this work is done a feast is given.
The wigwam or lodge and all articles of the household belong to the woman--the head of the household--and at her death are inherited by her eldest daughter, or nearest of female kin. The matter is settled by the council women. If the husband die his property is inherited by his brother or his sister's son, except such portion as may be buried with him. His property consists of his clothing, hunting and fishing implements, and such articles as are used personally by himself.
Usually a small canoe is the individual property of the man. Large canoes are made by the male members of the gentes, and are the property of the gentes.
_RIGHTS OF PERSON._
Each individual has a right to freedom of person and security from personal and bodily injury, unless adjudged guilty of crime by proper authority.
_COMMUNITY RIGHTS._
Each gens has the right to the services of all its women in the cultivation of the soil. Each gens has the right to the service of all its male members in avenging wrongs, and the tribe has the right to the service of all its male members in time of war.
_RIGHTS OF RELIGION._
Each phratry has the right to certain religious ceremonies and the preparation of certain medicines.
Each gens has the exclusive right to worship its tutelar god, and each individual has the exclusive right to the possession and use of a particular amulet.
_CRIMES._
The violations of right are crimes. Some of the crimes recognized by the Wyandots are as follows:
1. Adultery. 2. Theft. 3. Maiming. 4. Murder. 5. Treason. 6. Witchcraft.
A maiden guilty of fornication may be punished by her mother or female guardian, but if the crime is flagrant and repeated, so as to become a matter of general gossip, and the mother fails to correct it, the matter may be taken up by the council women of the gens.
A woman guilty of adultery, for the first offense is punished by having her hair cropped; for repeated offenses her left ear is cut off.
_THEFT._
The punishment for theft is twofold restitution. When the prosecutor and prosecuted belong to the same gens, the trial is before the council of the gens, and from it there is no appeal. If the parties involved are of different gentes, the prosecutor, through the head of his household, lays the matter before the council of his own gens; by it the matter is laid before the gentile council of the accused in a formal manner. Thereupon it becomes